AVARI: animated virtual agent retrieving information

Avari is a virtual receptionist for the Computer Science department at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her components include background subtraction to detect a person's presence, speech recognition, audio and visual devices to communicate with passersby. Deployed in a public setting, we investigate the reactions and interactions of passersby with Avari. We describe the design and architecture of the virtual human and discuss the effectiveness of a publicly deployed virtual human.

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